“To Your Eternity” – Manga shows change is necessary for survival

“To Your Eternity” is the latest manga from “A Silent Voice” creator Yoshitoki Oima and it takes place in a world that is a far beyond her previous series.

It shows the life of a strange orb that has the power to shape shift. The “narrator” implants it on Earth in order to see its reaction. It starts as inanimate objects until its surroundings turn into a tundra and a wolf collapses by it. Like it did in the past, the orb transforms into the creature, heals the wounds it copied from its predecessor and explores. By a twist of destiny, it finds the wolf’s owner, a lonely boy living within the abandoned ruins of his winter village. The wolf stays with the boy to gather stimulating data, but will learn about the harsh truth about being a living creature.

Though many know Oima for modern drama, she has roots with the action genre. She taps into the type of scenes she drew for the 2009 “Mardock Scramble” manga when illustrating the carnage but with the cleanliness and details she has in “A Silent Voice.” The combination is needed for a story filled with ferocity and a lot of opposition for the protagonist. “To Your Eternity” has also similar elements to “A Silent Voice” within the writing with having a character that does not have the same amount of agency compared to those around them. However, this protagonist has much more of a struggle since they are starting with little knowledge of anything even with its unusual power. The orb’s journey seems to be a perilous one and there are a lot of scene of bloodshed and body dismemberment. While Kodansha Comics gives “To Your Eternity” a “Teen” rating, reader discretion is advised when checking out this series. It is an underdog story that has a mighty bite.

Volume Four of “To Your Eternity” will be on shelves in April 2018. Kodansha Comics also has the complete series of Oima’s other two manga, “Mardock Scramble” (novel originally by Tow Ubukata) and “A Silent Voice”.